


Blade's Edge

by Numerion



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-08 22:56:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7776931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numerion/pseuds/Numerion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fantasy memoirs of a man who has lived through an apocalypse while playing second fiddle to a hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Intro

My blade cut deep into his shoulder. The look on his face didn't seem to change. I quickly pulled it out of his body and dodged his counterattack. My breathing was continuously getting heavier. I knew I needed to finish the fight fast. His attacks remained the same, hard and reckless.   
I blocked his next attack and spun around from the momentum, slashing against his chest in the process. Instead of falling back, he raised the bloody cleaver yet again. There was no stopping him. I stepped to the side to get out of his swinging range. The cleaver tapped against my leg, but didn't pierce through the clothes. 

A free attack for me. I slashed at his elbow. Blood sprung out, but he still didn't even flinch. Again, he just used my offtime to launch an attack against me. This time it was his backhand hitting me in the gut. I couldn't dodge fast enough. I stumbled backwards, crashing into crates in a corner.   
Of all the hits I ever endured, this was the worst. I had endured hits by hammers, cuts made by swords, even a crash with a horse. But this one was different. It hurt more than all of them. It felt as if a mountain fell on my stomach. And in the end, it were just a couple broken ribs.   
I collected myself and got back on my feet. He could've killed me meanwhile, but he didn't. He just kept looking at me. His eyes dug deep in his skull. His sight nearly empty. He did see me, but he didn't see me as a danger. And he just stood there.   
I made a step forward. I wanted to get closer to him, force him into a corner and slash him apart. But he was having none of it. As I got closer, his sight changed from empty to curious. Like a dog which spotted a new toy. And like a dog he sniffed. He must've caught my scent. He opened his jaw roaring at me. His mouth smelled fugly. So much I decided to swing my sword through it. He noticed early and reached with his open hand against my blade. He managed to stop it. And it only cost him couple fingers. He seemed genuinely happy.   
Instead of caring about wounds, his cleaver in his intact hand swung at me from beneath. I barely blocked it. But I realised that he didn't wait for an opening. He didn't plan ahead. He didn't dance with me. All he did was drop attacks at me, hoping I would drop with them. he didn't see me as an enemy, he saw me as food. A food which defends itself. And his wounds kept on bleeding. But there was something strange about them, they just didn't bleed enough. He had freshly ruptured shoulder, but the wound looked like few days old. It should've certainly bled more.   
I changed my strategy. Instead of attacking him head on, I decided to dance around him, deflect his attacks and try and find an ideal opening. He didn't play with the rules, it was an easy task for me. My blade rang as it kept hitting the cleaver. I bode my time. His attacks were growingly vicious. By doing a step back every now and then allowed me a lot of space and time to respond to his attacks, sometimes even do a quick counter attack.   
Finally I saw my chance. His hand followed a line forward, but he aimed too high and his swing was too slow. I rapidly dodged and chopped his hand off. And he wouldn't even notice, had the cleaver not made a loud clang as it hit the ground.   
At that point he was defenceless. I continued slashing him until he was lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood. And he was still alive. I gathered my things and set off outside.   
There, I saw more of them. Each eating and feasting on flesh. Mostly human. Obviously, I didn't bother disturbing them and left promptly.   
I never returned to Ravenhold. Nobody of the survivors did.


	2. Devil among sheep

There we were. Praying. I never was a religious person, but right there and then the church was the safest place.   
The priest preached on. He talked about sins of others and how they could affect even the holliest of souls. He mentioned rapture. He talked about demons filling our world. He talked about demons filling us.   
Through the church's colorfull mosaic windows we could see the red darkness slowly filling the air. Heavy wind picking up branches and throwing them against the church's walls. Shrieking of birds trying to fight the wind.   
I didn't trust the priest's words. I didn't believe that what was happening was a sort of god's punishment. Nor that there was a god in the first place. Nor that even if there was one, that he would actually care about us. This disbelief got shaken from the roots during my lifetime, but I'll get to it other time.   
I didn't know what was coming, but I knew it certainly wasn't the rapture. 

The door of the church slowly opened.   
The priest fell quiet. All of our gazes focused on the gap which formed between the wings of the door.   
With numbing silence, the gap grew wider. We all sat without moving a brow. We didn't know what was on the other side. Or what would happen, once the door open fully.   
The red glow from the gap increased in intensity, as the door opened more and more. I could see a person standing there. The light shined around him. He was holding a short sword dripping with blood. The door continued opening, revealing him to everybody inside. I sat horrified. And I was among the bravest of the folk.   
Beneath his feet laid two bodies, probably the guards, pool of blood around them. The invader was barefoot, his leather pants stained with blood. Brown furry jacket covering his torso. He also had black featherly wings emerging from his back, similar to the ones drawn on the walls of the church, but black. His scalp was bare, only with a dark red burn mark on the top of his head. He had a vile smirk on his face.   
The sound of the heavy doors falling from the hinges snapped me out of a trance.   
I looked around catiously. Everybody sat around with terrified looks on their faces. Nobody dared to mutter a word or move. Or let their sights from the door. Except for a man in the first row. He stood up and slowly made his way into the isle. He too was holding a short sword, not too different from the other guy's. I knew him, he was a mercenary, which came into the town about a month prior. He helped us by slaying a bunch of troublemakers in the nearby woods. He sat in our inn ever since. He also played cards with us. And he was pretty good at it too.   
"Father, please, continue your sermon" he spoke softly, but his voice still echoed in the silent church as he walked towards the door. When he passed them, the door wings have risen and started closing on their own again.   
The last thing we saw was a pair of black wings emerging out of the mercenary's back.


	3. Dusk

I finally found their camp. It was on the western road, about an hour or two away from Ravenhold by a carriage. A little offroad, but close enough that they could threaten it.   
It was almost a miracle that they didn't notice me. Almost. Mostly it was because they were out on the road at that moment.   
I stumbled across it due to a waste pile they were making deeper into the forest; broken boxes, barrels, bones and smell of shit and piss. All uncovered. They thought it was deep enough to not be found.   
They had been blocking the road west for a few weeks by then. Ravenhold was getting desperate for resources. I spent a good five days trying to find them. 

The camp was relatively small, only four improvised tents made from strings sticks and furs, located on a forest clearing just few dozen feet off the road.   
My job was to find them and report back. But I knew that on the day I found them a group of merchants was supposed to be coming through. I hoped that I could somehow use the situation, manage to take out a few of them with traps, maybe scare the rest away. I hoped in a miracle.   
These men knew what they were doing, their camp was well hidden, they had a constant lookout and a person patrolling around the camp. He even passed by me three times, but back then I could hide from deers, wolves and bears in plain sight. Hiding from a thug was a no-issue.   
As I predicted, the caravan of traders was coming as the sun was closing in to the west. Seven of the thugs disappeared into the trees near the road. Two of them still remained in the camp on the lookout. My plan has been halted before I even had a chance. They had returned a while later, carrying a bunch of boxes and leading a packed horse behind them. After that, two thugs returned, leading two merchants, a man and a woman blindfolded between them. One of the thugs was still missing.   
"Someone is coming" yelled the lookout, quickly putting a chainmail vest on. All of the thugs guided their sight towards west, where the lookout was pointing.   
And indeed, from west a man approached. He held a sword in one hand, the other was hidden under a small metal buckler.His walk was steady and has shown no signs of trying to be discreet. He wore full chainmail gear and a plated helmet with a wide visor.   
The thugs positioned themselves between the stranger and their tents. One of them started loading a crossbow.   
"Let the merchants go and leave this place!" the stranger ordered, his pace not slowing down.   
"Piss off!" the bandit leader shouted back. His hands firmly grasped the handle of his flail. But the man didn't stop. He raised the buckler higher, getting ready. I couldn't see his face because of the setting sun shining into my eyes. But what I could see was the way he carried himself. He knew what he was doing.   
The bandit leader nodded and the crossbowman released a shot. It was aimed well, but the Stranger blocked it with a quick motion of the buckler. Right after, the stranger started sprinting the last few feet towards the surprised bandit leader. The thug raised his flail and shield in the other hand. But he was too slow. He couldn't block the quick downwards slash, which ended up splitting his knee. His knee shattered and the thug tried to keep his balance, but that only gave the stranger another opening. And he used it. A quick bash of the buckler right into the thug's face knocked him out.   
But the other bandits weren't so slow. As soon as the leader fell down, another charged at the Stranger with a two handed axe raised up high, ready to strike.   
His attack was fast and strong, but it just barely missed. The Stranger spun around, dodging the attack completely. Mid spin he stopped, standing directly behind the massive bandit. Quick stab of his blade and blood came splashind down from the bandit's neck. The massive body crashed on its knees. A kick to the back and the Stranger retracted the bloody blade from the corpse.   
Another one approached the Stranger cautiously. Similarly he wore a chainmail gear, short sword and a wooden buckler. On top of his head sat a half helmet from under which gold locks were flowing. He walked at steady pace, trying to get into the perfect distance, while keeping his enemy at bay.   
Before he got the chance to attack, the lookout tried sneaking up to the Stranger from the left. He ran up the last few feet and attempted a quick strike with a mace, but the Stranger blocked it with the buckler. He counterattacked quickly aiming at the thug's throat, while backing away from the other guy as well. The hit only scraped the plate on his enemy's chest. Stranger knew it would. Without stopping the blade, it turned around and another slash hit the lookout in the face, hitting the nose and one of his sharp eyes and carrying a spillage of blood and skin along with it. Sending a glance sideways at the Gold-locks he decided that he had time for one more hit. His blade slashed for the third time, burrying through the belly armor and spilling the guts of the thug. He dropped the mace and fell on his knees, trying to keep it together, but he couldn't. I only saw him from behind, but I could make out his hands trying to figure out what's wrong with his stomach.   
The Stranger didn't fight to kill, but he certainly didn't hold back. Clearly he had no interest in defeated foes getting back on their feet.   
The gold haired fellow waited. There was a weird sense of honour to be found in his stance. He didn't try to surprise the Stranger, he didn't try to use the opportunity of a free strike. He didn't try to get an unfair advantage. I never understood that. But I was no knight, nor a fighter. I was a trapper. Abusing advantage was my job.   
The Stranger turned his attention to him and they both got into combat stance. They strafed around each other, neither of them eager to attack. First time during the whole fight I could see the Stranger's face when he turned sideways: he had a young face, clean shaven, clean skin, no obvious scars. His face was unlike most I have seen in my life: his nose was small and his eye sockets were fairly shallow. His eye brows were yellow in colour and tiny. They didn't fit his rather large head. Rest was covered by his helmet.   
The Stranger was first to attack. A quick slash at shoulder height. Not terribly strong, as the Gold-locks blocked it with his buckler, but followed with a quick stab. It got parried and another slash followed. Slowly the fight continued, neither of them managing to hit the other. Had I not seen what the Stranger managed to do to the other bandits, I would think that they were equally matched. Both the Stranger was obviously holding back. He was waiting for something.   
Another pair of slashes and parries went through before the Gold-locks did a pirouette around the Stranger, moving to his left side. The slash came fast and bit into the exposed leather vest up on the Stranger's arm, right above the buckler. The Gold-locks tried for another blow, aiming higher, but the Stranger was faster. His buckler bashed into the enemy's unprepared arm, fumbling him backwards. A strong attack followed, striking at the wooden buckler, successfully breaking it in two and hitting the hand behind it. A spur of blood hit the forest ground, but the Gold-locks didn't bow down yet. The tip of his blade made its way high up and had it not been for Stranger's recline back, it would hit his face. I could hear it scrape across the metal of his helmet. The Stranger stepped back a bit, but quickly made a lunge sideways. Moments later a crossbow sprung for the second time. I could hear a scream of pain. A trail of blood went down from the Gold-locks's shoulder. He gave a quick glance backwards at the crossbowman, but before he could look back, a buckler hit him in the head, knocking him out.   
The crossbowman threw the crossbow away and pulled out a club, backing away slowly, trying to hide behind the remaining three thugs. But they would not prove much defense. Two of them decided to take matters into their legs and started running. Their path lead them towards the place where I was hiding. They didn't spot me. Neither did they the trap I had set up earlier that day. One of them tripped on a wire, exposing a board full of spikes right in his falling path. The sight was never nice. He ended up with his head impaled on two bloody spikes. The other tried stopping, but his foot landed on one of the spikes. He fell on the ground near the trap. He spotted me as he lied there. My cover was blown. He started crawling away.   
"No, please, don't" he pleaded. But I had a mission. Dagger drawn, I quickly lunged forward, putting him out of his misery. I never really liked killing people, but I didn't hesitate when I had to.   
When I got up again, the three remaining pairs of eyes were on me. The Stranger turned his head towards the thugs as he silently came closer. Only the crossbowman and a slim guy remained there. The slim guy noticed him and let go of his shield and axe. The crossbowman tried his last chance and leaped at the Stranger with the club ready. The stranger had none of that and his short sword pierced right through his stomach and came out the other way. A quick step back to pull out the blade and a spin. The crossbowman's head came right off. 

"Free the merchants, finish off the survivors and help the merchants return the cargo on their wagon." He said as he cleaned the bloody blade in the crossbowman's corpse's garments, his words were aimed at the slim survivor "Double time!"   
He sent a look towards me "Treat his wounds, we are taking him to the town." he said and pointed at the knocked out Gold-locks fellow. I silently nodded. As I was getting ready to treat the wounds, I noticed with the corner of my eye as the Stranger went through the boxes. He was searching for something.   
Later on I found him smoking from a pipe, sitting and leaning against the carriage on the road. His helmet wasn't on his head. His nose had dryed out blood covering it. He had yellow hair tied up in one single ponytail, running down to his shoulders. He knew I was there, but didn't react to me. We didn't speak. I could see on his face that he didn't like killing. That it was just something that he had to do. Something that he was really good at, but he didn't want to do it. He just endured it.   
We set for Ravenhold as the darkness set in.


	4. Fort

I held night guard duty that evening. My job was to make sure nothing goes wrong in the courtyard and any incoming visitors will be properly taken care of.   
That was when they brought Her in. Two soldiers leading a blonde woman tied in chains were let through the gate. That was also the first time I have seen Lady Merith unmasked.   
As they approached, I have noticed that she had a giant burn mark across the left side of her face, all the way from her left ear to her nose and lips. Parts of her nose were missing. So was her right ear and right side of her chin. She had a deep scar connecting the two missing pieces. She also had scars on the top of her head and forehead. Chunks of her hair were missing. Suddenly I understood why she always wore the mask. All of her scars seemed to have healed for a long time, they certainly weren't made in the last several years. If she didn't have the scars, her face would look very young, like a child's even. The hair she had was cut short, mostly just going down to her neck. She had a fresh bruise on her cheek and several on her neck, probably from someone gripping her.   
The taller of the soldiers woke me up from my deep analysis by talking "We practically found her like this. Out in the village. Near the mill. She was hiding bellow the building." he finished and waited for my response. When it didn't arrive he added "By her scars we thought she could be of use for us...". I looked at him and then back at her.   
"You know" I started "I wonder why we even bother sending you two out..." I wasn't usually an aggressive person. But my particular position in the fort required I had authority over the lower soldiers. "Remember what the Lord said?" I continued, not waiting for a response from either of them "That you are to find fresh victims of the plague or victims of the brain-deads."   
"Exactly! Look at her!" the shorter, clearly smarter of the soldiers exclaimed "She has so many scars, she must have fought with many of them!". The other one joined in "And we found her in the village, there are lots of them! She must have been hiding from them!" he added.   
I knelt down in front of her and grabbed her by the chin "Look at these scars. All of them are ages old, all healed up already." I turned my look back at them, letting her go "And look at how petite she is. She wouldn't be able to fight or outrun them. She didn't fight no brain-dead." I stood up and turned around, signing for them to follow me "But we can always use a new maid..." 

I was leading them down the usual path through the fort's corridors towards the lord's office. Every person who was to stay in the fort had to be approved by him. About four corridors in, I opened a door to a small room, an armory, and let them in.   
As they entered and looked around, the shorter of the two asked "Hey! Why do we go here? We always go to the Lord's office, don't we?" and turned around to me. I closed the door slowly behind me, not to cause too much noise. I nodded at Lady Merith and quickly lashed out my sword, stabbing the short guy in the chest faster than he could react. Lady Merith, now freed from one side headbutted the tall guy into stomach once and twice, preventing him from pulling out his sword. I retracted the sword from the quickly dying guard and planted it onto the taller one's throat.   
"Slay him!" Lady Merith ordered without moving a bit. I did as commanded and pushed the blade through. I used the keys found on one of the dead to unlock the chains on Merith's arms and neck. She looked relieved, but as usual she didn't speak much. She looked around the armory and started picking up daggers, pieces of leather armour, even found a headband. She quickly equiped as much as she could, including putting on the headband over her head, only leaving her eyes and nose out.   
"Let's go" I could hear her voice muffled. 

We ventured through the fort. We tried to be cautious, but not to sneak, as not to be suspicious. We were searching for something, but she wouldn't tell me what it was. She said I wouldn't believe if she told me. But she was wrong, at that point I would believe pretty much anything, I've already seen a great deal of weird stuff. She also said I'd know when I've seen it.   
I lead her to parts of the fort where I was not permited to enter usually.   
We met a group of patrolling guards along the corridors. Before they could even ask a question, she had already slit throats of two of them, leaving me to stab one of them in the gut and tripping another, while she finished the rest. She did not play games.   
We continued down the way where they came from. The fort was quiet as usual, so when we passed by a door, from which rattling and screaming could be heard, we knew we have found something.   
I slowly opened the door and peeked in. Inside was a room separated by metal bars, making a holding cell out of it. I immediately noticed why the bars were there. One of them living dead was inside the cell, screaming and bashing against the walls. He wasn't as passive as I remembered them. I scanned across the rest of the room, noticing a table filled with papers on the other side of the cell.  
"Are we looking for this?" I turned to Merith and asked. She just shook her head "No, but this being here, I am now sure what I am looking for is somewhere in here..." she said and walked into the room, towards the table. She rumaged through the papers and finally handed me one. It said: 

"John Star, 35 years old, farmer, 84 kilograms.   
Since contagion: 6 hours. Came villingly.  
Advanced stage of disease. Vital signs normal, mental state declining."

There was also a date. Twenty first of august. Three days prior to me reading the paper.   
"I...I remember him being brought in. I approved it." I said looking at the creature in the cell. As I spoke, it noticed me. It leaped against the cell bars trying to reach me, but I was safe distance away. It kept screaming and spitting. Despite forming from a man, the creature was hardly reminiscent of a human. It kept the humanoid figure, but its individual joints and parts were puffed out, fat and soggy. It looked as if I stabbed it, liquid would come pouring out. The eyes dug deep in the skin were just big pupils.   
"I told him that everything will be fine. I assured him that we would cure him." I turned to Merith again "He is different than the others I've seen" I acknowledged.   
She tore a stack of papers in half "He is a fine specimen it seems." she nodded "You've only seen fresh ones so far though. He has been here for a few days, the transformation is pretty fast." She stepped up closer to the bars and continued "But this one...he is way too aggressive for his stage. I think that's why they are keeping him here."   
"Stage?" I asked and I felt my eyes widen in confusion "What do you mean with stage? This isn't what the disease does to people?"   
Merith touched the creature's arm softly. To my surprise the creature didn't react. "Yes, what you call 'disease' does this. But it doesn't end here. They are a shell, a cocoon. Inside, he is still evolving." She let go of the arm and looked me in the eyes "In a few days time, this fellow will be a bloodthirsty killing machine. And your sword won't be able to pierce his skin."   
I had more questions, but footsteps in the corridor interrupted us. I quickly stepped behind the door. Merith moved to the side, so she wouldn't be seen.   
The footsteps closed in. A person walked into the room. One of the higher up guards. I could hear his metal insignia clicking against his shoulder guard. "Who are you?" I heard as he addressed Merith. I peeked from behind the door and saw him turned to Merith completely. Merith was leaning against the other wall, trying to seem not dangerous. She nodded at me. I stepped out from behind the door quietly and aligned my sword with his back. There was a weak spot in the armours, where the individual plates connected. I pushed hard at my sword and pierced it, slicing through his back in the motion as well. Since Merith was training me, I got pretty efficient at stabbing people.

"We need to move. They know we are here..." she said as she helped me pull the body of my sword. I agreed and we hastily left the room. I closed the door, trying to hide the mess, but it was clearly stained with blood. Nothing to do about it. We stopped sneaking. We ran down the corridor, only sometimes slowing down and opening doors, trying to find whatever we were searching for. At the end, we found a bigger door.   
"It's inside. I know it. I feel it. Get ready for whatever hell we might find..." she said and without waiting, she opened the door wide, stepping inside right away with a dagger in her hand. I followed her in, my sword ready.   
Inside we found a pretty clean office. A room with several seats along the walls, lit chandelier hanging from the ceiling, pretty weapons hanging on the walls and papers neatly sorted out on the table.   
I heard the door shut behind me. "I don't remember letting you in..." a voice said. I knew the voice. It was the lord.   
"Sir I didn't know..." I started explaining, I was less and less sure about Lady Merith's plan with every second. "Sister!" I was interrupted by the lord "You should have let me known you are coming to visit." He passed by me and stepped closer to Merith. She was turned away from the both of us and she was shaking her head "How..." she whispered "I didn't feel you..." she turned around and her eyes were filled with anger "And I still don't!"   
"Ah yes, this..." he said a little bit taken back "I did lose my wings." he said and passed by her, walking to his table. He went through the cabinets and took out a rather dirty bottle of wine.   
"So all is lost then..." she said. That's the only time I heard a sign of defeat in her voice. "We are all gonna die."   
"Well....not entirely" he said and smelled the wine. A smile curled his lips "I survived and I found the wings. I can still kill him..."   
"You know, it's ironic...of the two of you, you were always the muscles, he was the brains." she pulled the scarf off her mouth "How did he manage to beat you?"   
The lord chuckled. Something behind him sparkled my eyes. Through a gap in the opened cabinet I saw a black oily feather. I've seen the exact feathers before. "He was brains alright. He practiced through all this time. When I met him, I had no idea." the Lord continued. He seemed familiar. I had seen him somewhere else before. I just couldn't place him. He took a swing out of the bottle and nodded "You want any of this before I kill the both of you?" 

I lunged forward quickly swinging my sword at his left arm. He slowed the swing with the bottle and it shattered. His other arm hit me heavy over the head. She wasn't kidding, he was the muscle. The swing nearly took me out. But she was already on top of him, stabbing, swinging, hitting him with all she had. At one point, he finally grabbed her by the neck and tossed her across the room. She hit her head on the chandelier as she flew and landed on the chairs near the wall.   
I didn't give him enough time to grab a weapon and quickly started stabbing at his face. During one swing, he didn't hesitate to block it with his elbow. It did dig deep into the arm, but he managed to grab the sword and yank it away from my hand. He crushed the blade with his fist and I knew that things were getting dire. He stepped towards me and pulled me by my arm. I didn't wait and tried to attack his eyes with my fingers. He reacted quickly and pulled his head back. His hair fell down onto my hand and revealed that he is bald. Suddenly it clicked. The man from outside the church. He grabbed my neck and raised me up in the air. He started choking me and crushing my neck. I squirmed around, trying to kick him. He shook with me and my head bumped back. I saw the chandelier right behind me.   
I let go of his arms and grabbed the chandelier, trying to get support and pull away from him. But before he did, the chandelier gave up. It came crashing down on me, but in my frustration, I managed to push it forward onto him, hitting him in the head with it. He finally let go of my poor neck and smashed the chandelier away. But before he got back to me, he noticed something. He noticed the table beside him catching on fire.   
"no no no no..." he started, trying to put out the rampaging flames through his scrolls. I used the opportunity to pick up my shattered sword from the ground and grab it by the blade. As he was smashing the fire on the table, I alligned the shot and with one quick hit, I put him out. The handle hit him right on the temple of his head.   
"Good job..." I heard Merith's voice from behind. She had the scarf back over her mouth and nose. "Now let's go out quickly, we won't do much more in here..." she said pointing at the fire spreading across the room. I nodded and closed to the window, smashing it with the sword handle. I looked out. We were only a story and a half up and there was a ditch beneath the window. "We can go through here..." I said and looked back. She was coming, dragging her brother behind her. I sighed and helped her toss him out. We both jumped out right after him. We carried him off to the shore and lied down there. 

There we were, on the side of a small hill, looking at the chaos we caused. A burning fort, people running off, some trying to contain the fire, others trying to save themselves. And we just lied there and watched.   
"Why?" I pointed at the bald man lying at our feet. He was still breathing, to my surprise.   
"We will need him. We can't stop all this hell without him..." she said and lied back. She pulled the scarf off again, getting a whiff of the smoke. "We should move soon, before they manage to cool things down..." she finished.   
I only nodded and lobbed a rock down into the ditch.


	5. Fire

I managed to run away. I escaped from the basement and decided that staying there would be stupid. More stupid than running into the wilds. On the way out, I passed by several corpses on the ground. Some of them were surrounded by the living dead. They were just sitting or standing around, swinging in the wind. it was trully eerie seeing them for the first time. They didn't notice me. Or if they did, they didn't follow me, when I kept my distance. 

I ran off into the night. The mist was still there, but I knew my way around the forest enough to get on a safe trail. I knew it ended just few dozen hundred steps behind the town, but it at least got me away. I would have to slow down after I got off it. I couldn't see anything, it was pitch black. Eventually, I got to the end of the trail. It was quiet in the woods, only thing I heard were my footsteps. But I didn't want to stop. Not then. I slowed but I continued walking with my arms stretched in front of me. I felt like I was blind.   
But then I saw light in the distance. Just a tiny little speck somewhere far. I decided to follow that light, I didn't have much other choice anyway. I heard...sounds on my way there. Groaning, crashing and spitting sounds. I didn't pay them much attention and hoped they would respond the same.   
As I got closer to the light, I realized it's a fire. A bonfire, to be precise. The mercenary was sitting by it. I walked up to him without waiting. He knew I was coming, didn't even look my way. Only kept staring into the flames. The light flickered in his dark eyes. Only then I realized that I didn't see his eyes properly before, he was always frowning. All I could see in his eyes then was blackness.   
"What are those?" I asked him. "Creations of my brother." was the answer I got. The mercenary was quiet. I couldn't even hear him breathe and that's one of the things I always watched out for, being a trapper and all. I noticed a sword sitting on the log next to him. It was the same sword he wore when he killed the bandits. Only this time it was much darker, much more...gruesome. His hand was on the ready to grab the handle. He was waiting for something.   
A sound came from the darkness. Not like the ones before, not loud and obvious. Mostly just a swoosh of the wind. He sprung into action. He was gone faster than the sound disappeared. I heard clashing swords, rough breaths and yells. Then the sounds grew distant. So distant they just vanished. After a moment a quick set of footsteps came back and a smaller, thin hooded figure came into view of the fire. It held two swords. One was stained with blood. I raised my own sword, but before I could protect myself, a blade was at my throat.   
A woman's voice came out "Don't believe a word he says. He is the plague bringing death and destruction. He will be the death of all of you." it said. It didn't wait for any questions I might have had. It was a smart decision, the mercenary appeared behind her suddenly. She expected him. A quick pirruete ruined his surprise. Blades clashed as she slashed sideways. She was on the offensive. Series of quick jabs aimed at his torso, none of them connecting due to him backing up and parrying. With only a single sword, he had trouble responding. I decided to help him. I lunged forward with my sword, but my blade was met with a swipe of one of her swords. The other bit me at my wrist. My blood spilled onto the forest ground. In that moment I finally looked into her face. Everything but her eyes was covered. Her eyes were as black as his. When she saw me looking her pupils focused more and she spun around, launched a fast stab with both swords at the mercenary pushing him away just a tad. Using the created space she leaped through the bonfire and vanished into the darkness beyond reach of the light.

The mercenary was bleeding. He was slashed across the chest. It was bad. I helped him to bandage up. I have seen the wings he had on his back. They seemed...crippled in a way. They were hidden under his armour perfectly before. They didn't limit him much. The wound closed quickly. He told me that he would be leaving at dawn. I nodded and went to sleep.


	6. The ambush

Over the years, I have heard many stories and rumors about the old king. Some say he was stabbed in the back. But that wasn't true. I was there when the king died, no stabbing was involved.   
I was called to arms, sometime late autumn. The king has recently appointed him a commander of the royal forces. He even gave him a name. Eon. At the time, all I ever called him was 'the mercenary', but suddenly he had a name. We were to march south, beyond the mountain range, into the desert. We were told the plague had originated from there. I and every other able man were made into an army. And so we went south. We met the royal army while still in mountains. It was the first time I have seen the king. A young charming person. For those few days I liked him. He kept Eon close. Eon was like a brother to him. Always by his side. Even making jokes. Something I never heard him do. It was an eerie time for me. 

When we were getting to the other side of the mountains, the king has constructed a scout party. The territory wasn't mapped before and we didn't know what we were walking into. The vanguard as he called it, would be constructed of several units and also his royal guard, with him in it. He wanted to be up front if anything happened. He wanted to see everything with his own eyes. Of course, being one of the best trappers, I was to be included. 

We went ahead. I liked the change of pace from the slow marching. Then one day when we were setting up camp, something happened. I was in one of the tents, but I heard screams from the other side of the camp. I moved out rapidly only to see the mutants, or rather what used to be the mutants ages ago. These seemed...reformed. Better. Stronger. There were lots of them, leaping through our camp, ripping soldiers apart.   
I grabbed a spear and attempted to defend myself from one of them. It leapt on me from across a dozen feet. I knew to brace the spear against the ground before it hit. The spear hit it dead on the torso, but it didn't pierce it. The spear broke and the beast was about to swipe me into two with its black claws. In that moment a wild horse trampled across the road, hitting it, stopping its attack. Its focus went to the horse galopping away instead of me. I suppose it thought the horse was a bigger threat.   
I continued between the tents. I counted maybe three or four dozens of the mutants. They were quickly killing a lot of our quys off. And eating them. I saw one of them stick a guy with it's claws and moments later tore another guy's head off. It was gruesome. The most noise was coming from the king's tent. It wasn't much of a tent anymore, lots of torn fabric flapping in the wind. And Eon standing near the king, fighting off two of the mutants with his sword and shield. After a closer look, I noticed three mutant bodies dead on the floor. His arms were stained with blood.   
Somebody tapped me on a shoulder. I nearly ran them through with my sword. It was another person from my unit. His sword was bloody and he spoke quickly "I need your help killing some of them" he said and rushed away from the camp, up to a little hill. I followed him. It wasn't hard to do with all those raging and killing mutants around. I would go anywhere rather than stay there and hope none of them picks a fight with me. He led me to a small cashe of rocks on the hill. I figured out what he wanted to do. We started moving them into proper locations and pushing them off the hill into groups of these mutants. Some others noticed us and joined us, allowing us to kill many of them. We did end up killing our men as well, but most of those would die anyway.   
But then we heard a swoosh of wings and a pair of footsteps behind us. Higher up on the hill a tall bald muscular person with only a light armor stood. Behind him a pair of black wings. He slowly made his way towards us, holding a spear in his arm and a sword strapped to his side. We stood in horror, now knowing what to expect. Without a word he pushed the spear through one of the other guys. And then another as he started pulling out his sword. The rest of us decided it would be better to run. But the only way out was down. I only turned away and looked as the others were trampled by some of the mutants chasing more runaway horses. I knew I was dead either way.

And that's when he appeared from the side. An ornate kiteshield in one hand, his usual broadsword in the other. He attempted to rush in, use the moment of surprise, but the dark angel noticed him. He dodged the quick shield bash by sidestepping, then he promptly spread his wings again and jumped off the ground.  
"I should've expected the cripple to lead this party of weaklings." I heard. I was still barely crawling on the ground, but I could see that Eon wasn't wearing his whole battlearmor. He was back in his trusty chainmail and a full helmet with a visor. He didn't have a reply or I didn't hear it. He was looking straight into the angel's eyes.   
The angel readjusted his grip on the spear and made a swooping attack towards him. I expected Eon to block and counterattack it, but he didn't. Instead he jumped to the side avoiding the attack completely. The angel flew by and raised back into air right away, doing a half circle before swooping back in, this time making a broad sweep which forced Eon to do a full roll on the ground, dodging beneath it. It seemed to me as if he knew how much the angel could commit to these lunges. The angel tried it several more times, but Eon always either dodged to the side, or lied flat on the ground, avoiding any contact at all.  
"Stop playing around and rise into the air." the angel said "Let's battle in the skies, like in the old times." Even through the sun shining into my eyes, I could see the smirk on his face. Eon didn't reply still. Instead he put the sword back into the scabbard and picked a spear from the ground. He glanced back into the sky at the smirking angel and waited. I knew that stance. I have seen it several times before.   
The angel attempted another swooping attack, but Eon quickly hurled the spear right at him, forcing him to dodge it to the side and lose focus for a moment. That's when Eon leapt towards him, shield forward. I have never seen a man jump as far and high as he did right there. They flew right against each other.  
A noise of metal hitting metal followed and they clashed and fell to the ground, both tumbling away their way. A few feathers escaped from the wings of the angel. Eon managed to get on his feet faster. The shield has broken and he threw it off. He turned towards the angel and saw him slowly crawling away. Their sights met. The angel started quickly pulling himself onto his feet, trying to get further away and spread out his wings. Eon sped up. I thought he would take out the sword first, but he didn't. He didn't want to let the other one get back into the air.   
The angel saw him charging and quickly jumped off and started swinging with his wings, but it was too late. Eon managed to grab onto his leg midjump and make him lose balance. Back down they went again. And they fought. Punches were exchanged, as both were bared of their weapons. Eon kept him pinned on the ground, but couldn't keep him from rolling to the side, knocking him down. Using the opportunity the angel quickly got up and pulled out his sword from the scabbard. He knew that he wouldn't fly away anymore. He waited for Eon to prepare. 

"Cannot fly anymore?" A grin formed on his face "So mortal..." He laughed out loud, held the sword firmly with both hands and charged forward at Eon. He blocked the hit and slashed from the upper side. The angel didn't even flinch when the blade hit him in the shoulder and dived deep into his flesh. Instead he plunged his own sword right through Eon's torso. Blood splurged out from Eon's back towards me. A gurgling howl came from his mouth as he pulled away, pulling the bloody sword with him. Breathing heavily he started circling around the angel.   
"I should just be merciful and kill you right away." the angel said as he lunged another atack at Eon. He let the hit graze his arm and made a sweeping hit to the angel's belly. A stench filled the air, but the angel didn't mind it much. His sword pierced Eon's armor on the shoulder as he stabbed him from an upper angle, driving his sword deep into Eon's torso. At that point I barely saw into his eyes. But what I could see was a clear surprise when Eon grabbed his arm firmly and wrestled him to the side. They both began tumbling to the ground. Both their swords deep inside their bodies.   
"A sword!" Eon yelled at me when they fell. He was still holding the angel by his arm, pulling him aside, the angel struggling to get free. His wings on full display.   
"And step away!" He said when I threw my sword to him. So I did, I backtracked as much as I could, but still see what was going to happen. While struggling, Eon stuck the sword bellow one of the wings. A horrible scream filled the air as a wing was dismembered. Purple blood came oozing out of the fresh wound. Eon eased his hold and the angel rolled away, stumbling onto his feet, face crumpled in agony.   
"How..." he asked "You are a mortal..." his voice staggered and his sight rested on Eon "No mortal can kill us". His stature spoke of giving up.   
"I can" Eon responded as he slowly got on his feet and walked towards the angel, his sword at the ready. "Let's finish this" he said and tried not to step into the purple blood. Black wing stained with purple blood. I saw as it started producing smoke where it touched the blood. Eon walked around the defeated angel and with a steady motion he slashed the remaining wing off. Not being too cruel to the angel, he chopped of his head before he had too much time to scream. 

I looked around. Our whole unit was dead. Nobody stayed alive. Struggling to get on my feet I rushed back to the main camp. The mutants were all dead or running away. They didn't fight back anymore. That was the first angel we downed and the greatest losses we suffered. But he was dead.

I saw what remained of the king that day. Not that you would call it a king anymore. Limbs torn off, head nowhere to be found and torso halfway eaten. I would have preffered him to be stabbed, honestly.


	7. Her

A rogue hero. Such a weird combination of words. You can be one or the other, not both. Yet people called him that. Folk stories got to me. One swing of his sword to dispatch a dozen of beasts. Some of them didn't even seem that far off.   
He left north. I was left behind. To slow them down, according to him. I believed him. Later I realized that he thought I wouldn't survive. And he would be right, if it wasn't for her.   
It happened on the third night after he left. I made a camp in a dense forest, making traps all around, thinking I was safe. At first I had trouble sleeping, but then I just kinda dozed off. I woke up to not so distant footsteps and groaning from three sides. Only the way north was clear. I scrambled onto my feet and searched for my sword. I knew it was somewhere close by. While I was trying to find it on the dirt floor of the forest, I realized that without light that sword would be as good as useless. I found it. Grabbing it and keeping it in front of me I rose to my feet. I heard a sound of one of my traps springing and hitting flesh. The groaning got worse. As if insulted by my traps hurting them, the footsteps got faster. They were coming in and I couldn't see a damn thing. I thought they couldn't either, but apparently they didn't care about that. They just went right for me. I could hear them hitting into trees and tripping over, but they didn't stop. I shot a glance towards the fireplace and noticed some active embers in there still. I knew that if I had more time, I could have made fire. And then I heard another pair of footsteps. Calm, slow and collected. And behind me. Before I could figure it out, they were next to me. Her voice followed "Set the fire. I need to see them to kill them." she said. I got on my knees, tossed my sword aside and focused on getting the fire back to life. I could hear some grunts meanwhile, some of hers, some of the beasts.   
I finally looked up when the fire was burning and giving out enough light. What I saw was a thing of beauty. A morbid beauty. She danced between the dead. Her whole body except her eyes hidden in a black garb. Her blows weren't strong but precise. Not a blow wasted. I saw her stab a beast's heart through its shoulder, then use the second sword as a prop against its face and pull out the first one. Two stabs to kill what seemed to be an immortal beast. They ignored her. They went for me still. She didn't let them. She chopped off the knee of one and it kept crawling closer. After stabbing two more, she went back to it, impaling it to the forest floor, leaving the sword there. She grew more ferocious when she had just the one sword. I felt bad about just standing there and tried to help her, but she just pushed me away and knocked me back towards the fire. She danced her dance of death alone. With more and more of them coming her strikes were less and less precise, her blade ended up chopping of limbs and heads more often. She didn't seem to tire otherwise. When it finally ended, she came crashing on the floor next to me.   
"Go clean the mess" she ordered me and fell asleep. I have never seen so much blood in one place before. I decided to push the limbs and bodies to the traps I dug out. Needless to say, they weren't enough. I pushed the remainder onto a pile and covered it with twigs. Later on we set that on fire. Turns out, they burn quite nicely.   
She stayed with me. She helped me. She also talked. She explained to me why they were here.   
"Our kind is different from yours" she started on one particularly cold morning "there's only a few of us. We rarely die. And most of our lives we wage wars against each other." She stopped there for a while. I knew she didn't want me questioning it more. She would get to it in her own time.   
"We don't trust each other. We use these as soldiers." She said and pointed to a fresh pile of dead beasts. "That's why he is here. That's why I am here to stop him." Something didn't seem right in that. I questioned in that time why would he keep me there and kill them if he wanted to use them to wage his wars. I didn't understand, but I didn't ask her. She seemed way too troubled for that already.   
"I cannot kill him anymore." she confessed once in the night when she couldn't sleep. "I had a chance once and didn't take it. Our way seemed harsh for me. I should have, but I didn't. I cannot anymore. Nor can you. None of us can."


	8. The marsh

We went deep into the desert. We were bleeding numbers. But he wanted to kill every single last of them. Before we split into several groups, we couldn't kill them without him. We always had to pin them down and wait for him to arrive. Our only luck was that they never formed parties. They were all alone, at most with their mutants. On one day he has chosen ten of us, me amongst them, to lead individual groups. He gave each of us a blade of black steel. He taught us how to pierce their wings and slice them off with the blades. And then we split and went different ways. The desert was huge. I personally killed 7 of them. I lost most of my assigned soldiers, but a solid dozen remained under my command. Good band of soldiers without which I wouldn't survive a day in there. We were the first to get back. He came soon after, alone. Three more arrived and he insisted on us waiting in a camp near an oasis. Wait until he came back.   
He did come back. All he had was a horse and a crate of swords. But he said it was done. That the other groups died off in the sands after they killed the angels. After several years, we could go back home.   
The way back was difficult. More people died to thirst and hunger. Or the sands took them. When we finally got back through the mountains, I was the only one from the original ten to stay alive. He took back my sword as well, to keep it with the rest. I didn't mind. I didn't need it anymore.   
We got back as heroes. The plague has ended, the enemies were vanquished. I got several badges for bravery. And then he became the king. I was to be one of his personal advisors. For a time, I helped him with matters of the countryside, helped him get the country back into shape after the war. And we did mostly a good job. Although we had problems with bandits and the like.   
One day, he came to me with a problem. Somebody was laying traps in the marshes south of the castle. They ended up killing people. He needed my help. He knew I wouldn't refuse. Just the two of us departed. We went down there, rode about half a day into the marshland. And that's when it happened. When I understood all of it. He came to me, looked me in the eye and said "Sorry" . Next thing I knew, there was a blade in my gut. He didn't have the heart to kill me himself after all those years. He left me there and thought that the marsh would eat me. And damn right he was, it would. Were it not for the old woman. The trapper. She found me. Dragged me to a shack on the water. I lost myself when she started treating me.  
When I came to, I couldn't see. She said the marsh took its toll. She also named her toll: most of the things I had with me. My sword, badges, money. She might have even taken my name away. And then she threw me out.  
I stumbled around, even got back to the city eventually. But nobody recognized me. I ended up on the streets, starving. Nobody would listen to me. I became stray, or worse. I barely lived on.


	9. Epilogue

"Do you have them?" The old man asked. His voice was slow and full of cracks.   
A thin box has been put into his arms "That's all of them." a tall guy with a scarf on his head responded after a while. The old man has opened the box and his callused fingers tracked across the objects inside.   
"We also found these." Another, much more bulkier man said. He was bald and there was a scar across his forehead. His hands pushed a sword into the old man's hands. Another set of hands took the box and set it on a table aside. The old man's fingers set around the handle and explored it.  
"Is it...Is it red?" he asked. The baldie nodded and then moments later responded "Yes. All ten of them are. All exactly the same. Are they the swords he gave you?"  
The old man's fragile hands gripped the handle and raised the sword with surprising ease. A definite "Yes." was the answer.   
The scarfed took away the sword and inquired another question "So you just sliced off the wings with these and they died?"  
"No, it only makes them mortal." the old man sighed and took a while before finishing his thought "We had to finish them off afterwards."  
The two men looked at each other. A frown came from the bald man, but then both of them nodded at each other. They both stepped back "Sir." They bowed even though the old man couldn't see them. "You've given us all we need. We won't be needing your services anymore." the scarfed said as he raised back up.   
"But you promised me one more thing!" The old man protested "Who are you?"   
"We are the Blade's edge, the kingdom's finest assassins." the scarfie answered and pulled the sword away. Others in the room started leaving through the door, leaving the old man behind sitting there and holding the box full of his old badges. Scarf guy is the last one to leave the room and he leaves with a final thought "And tonight a false king dies."


End file.
